Here's a link to my site with pics from the High Performance Driving School I participated in on Saturday.
The purpose of this event is to let you take your street car out and have fun running around the track at speed. All the while learning important car control and high performance driving techniques in a safe, controlled environment. There are usually no accidents, except fo an occasional spin-out. But there is a lot of runoff at this track and very little to hit so you usually just get your car a little dirty if you have an off-track excursion. Although at the last one I went to a NSX in group C managed to slam his rear-end into the pit wall trying to save a spin instead of just going with it. Most of the drivers are very safe because they have to take these cars to work on Monday morining. We got 5 runs at 20 minutes each, so it's pretty good track time for the money ($195).
Drivers are split into three run groups:
A - Newbies. Never been on the track before or had any high performance driving instruction. These folks have an instructor in their car the whole day. Limited to the front side of the track only.
B- Had some instruction and maybe one track day. Most drivers have an instructor in their car with them on every run. They may get cut loose to run on their own by the end of the day. Limited to the front side of the track only.
C- No in-car instructor needed. Still supervised, but is more for guys just trying to have fun, get track time and improve their skills. But you are still not racing door-to-door and passing is limited to the three straights and only with a point-by from the car being overtaken. Drive the entire 3 mile track.
I was in group C as I have been to this event earlier in the year in Group B, have participated in a time trial at he track, been to Skip Barber driving school and done several autocross events.
It was really fun, but the MP3's lack of power starts to show itself when driving in a group of better driviers. I was able to catch a lot of guys(Porsche, Camaro, Integra Type R, BMW M3) in the corners and was able to hang with them but I wasn't all over them like I was in the B group. Then, I would seriously fall behind in the straights and have to work it prettty hard in the corners to catch back up to them. But I was able to fend off an M3 pretty well so that I could keep him from having the opportunity to pass me in the straights. He later remarked at how surprised he was that he couldn't catch me considering he has quite a bit more power.
While I like running in G Stock in autocross and I can do quite well against the competition there, doing track stuff like this (I will be doing more of them this year) makes me want to look a little harder at the turbo options for the car. It's really all it needs to make the Porsche owner's jaw drop.
OK, enough talking here's the link:
http://www.distantecho.net/thill6-1-02/
The purpose of this event is to let you take your street car out and have fun running around the track at speed. All the while learning important car control and high performance driving techniques in a safe, controlled environment. There are usually no accidents, except fo an occasional spin-out. But there is a lot of runoff at this track and very little to hit so you usually just get your car a little dirty if you have an off-track excursion. Although at the last one I went to a NSX in group C managed to slam his rear-end into the pit wall trying to save a spin instead of just going with it. Most of the drivers are very safe because they have to take these cars to work on Monday morining. We got 5 runs at 20 minutes each, so it's pretty good track time for the money ($195).
Drivers are split into three run groups:
A - Newbies. Never been on the track before or had any high performance driving instruction. These folks have an instructor in their car the whole day. Limited to the front side of the track only.
B- Had some instruction and maybe one track day. Most drivers have an instructor in their car with them on every run. They may get cut loose to run on their own by the end of the day. Limited to the front side of the track only.
C- No in-car instructor needed. Still supervised, but is more for guys just trying to have fun, get track time and improve their skills. But you are still not racing door-to-door and passing is limited to the three straights and only with a point-by from the car being overtaken. Drive the entire 3 mile track.
I was in group C as I have been to this event earlier in the year in Group B, have participated in a time trial at he track, been to Skip Barber driving school and done several autocross events.
It was really fun, but the MP3's lack of power starts to show itself when driving in a group of better driviers. I was able to catch a lot of guys(Porsche, Camaro, Integra Type R, BMW M3) in the corners and was able to hang with them but I wasn't all over them like I was in the B group. Then, I would seriously fall behind in the straights and have to work it prettty hard in the corners to catch back up to them. But I was able to fend off an M3 pretty well so that I could keep him from having the opportunity to pass me in the straights. He later remarked at how surprised he was that he couldn't catch me considering he has quite a bit more power.
While I like running in G Stock in autocross and I can do quite well against the competition there, doing track stuff like this (I will be doing more of them this year) makes me want to look a little harder at the turbo options for the car. It's really all it needs to make the Porsche owner's jaw drop.
OK, enough talking here's the link:
http://www.distantecho.net/thill6-1-02/
